DOI issue:
Nr. 3
DOI article:[Inhaltsverzeichnis]
DOI chapter:Artykuły
DOI article:Polanowska, Jolanta: Powązki - „Un jardin de plaisance, à la mode ou coutume anglaise”*
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.71008#0564
554
Jolanta Polanowska
Marian Żebrowski's Plan de Powązki d Madame
la Princesse Czartoryska shows the estate (ca 112 ha)
diagonally divided by the sprawling Rudawka with
three islands in the centre, the dwelling part from the
west, and the garden of parterre de compartiments,
with the whole enclosed within belts of forests,
meadows, and farming plots. The road from the west
across the bridge led to the clearing on a hill: a kind
of an irregular courtyard, closed on the axis with the
house of the Prince and Princess. From the outside
the house resembled a low cottage. In 1774, a poet
described it as a "jewel set in a wooden box", with
richly furbished rooms: "The outside akin to a cot-
tage, the inside to a temple". Subsequently, the house
was altered to form a compact "Saxon manor", a bun-
galow (with usable basement and attic), on a rectan-
gular layout (ca 31 x 10 m), with a five-axial eastern
faęade. The last alterations on the house bestowed a
Gothic-Oriental ("Moorish") faęade of a palace
upon it. The interior housed, among others, a bed-
room, a study, and two other rooms, most likely
drawing-rooms. There was a lift in the (?) bedroom,
which allowed to lower an armchair to the bathroom
in the basement. The decor with gilded architectural
decoration was lavish. The interiors were dominated
by paintings, mainly by Norblin, featuring scenes of
rural games; a Cracovian regional wedding; harvest
festival; and the bonfires on the Midsummer Night's;
the side drawing room featured the triptych Three
Times of the Day (1758) with the fetes galantes
scenes: Breakfast in the Park, Fair in the Park, and
A Concert in the Park; as well as the paintings:
Swimming in the Park and A Party Going to the
Lake. What visitors marvelled at most was the bath-
room (William Coxe's description), covered with
golden tiles, with a bath hidden under a sofa. There
existed a library with richly bound books featuring
the bookplate reading: "I. C., Bibliotheque de Po-
vonzki".
The houses of the children and courtiers formed
an irregular settlement (hameau): wooden bunga-
lows, with thatched roofs, of different layouts, with
gardens, were adorned with emblems painted by
Norblin, in which he actually followed Princess's
ideas. On the edge of the island there was an antiq-
uized ruin of an amphitheatre (Colosseum), housing
stables, while along the path leading to it, there were
similar ruins: a corner of a Doric colonnade and a
triumphal arch. The garden statues were later, litera-
ture-inspired: Tancred and Clorinda after Torquato
Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered and Pamela after Sam-
uel Richardson; a commemorative rock of daughter
Teresa. A pyramid was planned to honour the poets
of pastoral poetry, described in a letter to Jacques
Delille (1783), who sent in the inscription: "Les
dieux des champs aux dieux des arts", though he crit-
icized the very idea which remained unaccom-
plished.
On the eastern river bank there were farming
premises: practical and decorative gardens; pavil-
ions in historicizing costumes: a windmill, a ruined
castle (kitchen?), a tower and a bridge ruin; Neo-
Gothic cowhouse on a steel square layout, with a
keep featuring the date "1639". The discussed pavil-
ions made the English landscape garden look like a
picturesque one. On the southern forested island
there was a deer-park. The edges were covered with
forest, meadows, and fields among which farming
buildings were located: the house of the vicestarost
(Maison de Podstaroste) with a home farm, and an
inn at the entrance (Cabaret), which made the estate
look like a ferme ornee. The "ornamented" sur-
roundings were formed by beautiful houses, farm
buildings, and gardens of courtiers, e.g. Jan Piotr
Norblin, Paris and Izabelin colonies, and a villa of
Doctor John.
When analyzing the artistic genesis of Powązki,
the influence of its owners has to be pointed to.
Among his ancestors, Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski
could name some personalities boasting outstand-
ing literary and artistic education, poets and ama-
teur architects: Stanislaw Herakliusz Lubomirski
(owner of the Ujazdów residence near Warsaw with a
Shepherd's Cottage in Arcadia), Łukasz Opaliński,
and Jan Andrzej Morsztyn. His parents' family's
residences also included Raj (Paradise) near Brze-
żany, whose name defining location alluded to the
lugo di delizie (paradise of earthly delights) with the
antique topos of locus amoenus. The location of
Powązki complied with the requirements for a tradi-
tional suburban villa. The name: "Princess Czarto-
ryska's Farm" referred to the 16th-century tradition
of a "farm" - "lord's house in the countryside", par-
ticularly a house of a humanist and patron. Prince
Czartoryski, member ("shepherd") of the Roman
Academy of Arcadia, founded Societe Litteraire du
Prince Adam (1770-72), a group of writers follow-
ing pastoral literature, e.g. in his adaptation of Salo-
mon Genssner's idyll En attendant a Daphne, Adam
Naruszewicz presented the Prince as the shepherd
called Dafnis, while Franciszek Kniaźnin showed
the Princess as nymph Temira.
In the first half of the 18th century, when the
gout franęais was in vogue, also the architects of
the Saxon court active in Warsaw complied with it
while designing maisons de plaisance as regular
and geometric layouts. The Prince and Princess
Czartoryski, seeking fashionable models for their
new estate in France (1768-69), visited residences
ofthe royal court and artistic elites, shaped already
in the way reflecting the transformations in the
court life, namely this aspiration to privacy, or dans
Jolanta Polanowska
Marian Żebrowski's Plan de Powązki d Madame
la Princesse Czartoryska shows the estate (ca 112 ha)
diagonally divided by the sprawling Rudawka with
three islands in the centre, the dwelling part from the
west, and the garden of parterre de compartiments,
with the whole enclosed within belts of forests,
meadows, and farming plots. The road from the west
across the bridge led to the clearing on a hill: a kind
of an irregular courtyard, closed on the axis with the
house of the Prince and Princess. From the outside
the house resembled a low cottage. In 1774, a poet
described it as a "jewel set in a wooden box", with
richly furbished rooms: "The outside akin to a cot-
tage, the inside to a temple". Subsequently, the house
was altered to form a compact "Saxon manor", a bun-
galow (with usable basement and attic), on a rectan-
gular layout (ca 31 x 10 m), with a five-axial eastern
faęade. The last alterations on the house bestowed a
Gothic-Oriental ("Moorish") faęade of a palace
upon it. The interior housed, among others, a bed-
room, a study, and two other rooms, most likely
drawing-rooms. There was a lift in the (?) bedroom,
which allowed to lower an armchair to the bathroom
in the basement. The decor with gilded architectural
decoration was lavish. The interiors were dominated
by paintings, mainly by Norblin, featuring scenes of
rural games; a Cracovian regional wedding; harvest
festival; and the bonfires on the Midsummer Night's;
the side drawing room featured the triptych Three
Times of the Day (1758) with the fetes galantes
scenes: Breakfast in the Park, Fair in the Park, and
A Concert in the Park; as well as the paintings:
Swimming in the Park and A Party Going to the
Lake. What visitors marvelled at most was the bath-
room (William Coxe's description), covered with
golden tiles, with a bath hidden under a sofa. There
existed a library with richly bound books featuring
the bookplate reading: "I. C., Bibliotheque de Po-
vonzki".
The houses of the children and courtiers formed
an irregular settlement (hameau): wooden bunga-
lows, with thatched roofs, of different layouts, with
gardens, were adorned with emblems painted by
Norblin, in which he actually followed Princess's
ideas. On the edge of the island there was an antiq-
uized ruin of an amphitheatre (Colosseum), housing
stables, while along the path leading to it, there were
similar ruins: a corner of a Doric colonnade and a
triumphal arch. The garden statues were later, litera-
ture-inspired: Tancred and Clorinda after Torquato
Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered and Pamela after Sam-
uel Richardson; a commemorative rock of daughter
Teresa. A pyramid was planned to honour the poets
of pastoral poetry, described in a letter to Jacques
Delille (1783), who sent in the inscription: "Les
dieux des champs aux dieux des arts", though he crit-
icized the very idea which remained unaccom-
plished.
On the eastern river bank there were farming
premises: practical and decorative gardens; pavil-
ions in historicizing costumes: a windmill, a ruined
castle (kitchen?), a tower and a bridge ruin; Neo-
Gothic cowhouse on a steel square layout, with a
keep featuring the date "1639". The discussed pavil-
ions made the English landscape garden look like a
picturesque one. On the southern forested island
there was a deer-park. The edges were covered with
forest, meadows, and fields among which farming
buildings were located: the house of the vicestarost
(Maison de Podstaroste) with a home farm, and an
inn at the entrance (Cabaret), which made the estate
look like a ferme ornee. The "ornamented" sur-
roundings were formed by beautiful houses, farm
buildings, and gardens of courtiers, e.g. Jan Piotr
Norblin, Paris and Izabelin colonies, and a villa of
Doctor John.
When analyzing the artistic genesis of Powązki,
the influence of its owners has to be pointed to.
Among his ancestors, Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski
could name some personalities boasting outstand-
ing literary and artistic education, poets and ama-
teur architects: Stanislaw Herakliusz Lubomirski
(owner of the Ujazdów residence near Warsaw with a
Shepherd's Cottage in Arcadia), Łukasz Opaliński,
and Jan Andrzej Morsztyn. His parents' family's
residences also included Raj (Paradise) near Brze-
żany, whose name defining location alluded to the
lugo di delizie (paradise of earthly delights) with the
antique topos of locus amoenus. The location of
Powązki complied with the requirements for a tradi-
tional suburban villa. The name: "Princess Czarto-
ryska's Farm" referred to the 16th-century tradition
of a "farm" - "lord's house in the countryside", par-
ticularly a house of a humanist and patron. Prince
Czartoryski, member ("shepherd") of the Roman
Academy of Arcadia, founded Societe Litteraire du
Prince Adam (1770-72), a group of writers follow-
ing pastoral literature, e.g. in his adaptation of Salo-
mon Genssner's idyll En attendant a Daphne, Adam
Naruszewicz presented the Prince as the shepherd
called Dafnis, while Franciszek Kniaźnin showed
the Princess as nymph Temira.
In the first half of the 18th century, when the
gout franęais was in vogue, also the architects of
the Saxon court active in Warsaw complied with it
while designing maisons de plaisance as regular
and geometric layouts. The Prince and Princess
Czartoryski, seeking fashionable models for their
new estate in France (1768-69), visited residences
ofthe royal court and artistic elites, shaped already
in the way reflecting the transformations in the
court life, namely this aspiration to privacy, or dans